head to head · open source
Mattermost vs certificates
Mattermost has 39,510 GitHub stars, 9,087 forks, 1,012 open issues and last shipped yesterday. certificates has 9,032 stars, 615 forks, 299 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Mattermost leads on adoption by 337% (39,510 vs 9,032 stars). Mattermost is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; certificates is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Mattermost has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, certificates 7%. Mattermost was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Mattermost | certificates | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 40K | ★ 9.0K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.1K | ⑂ 615 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Mattermost if
- You weight community size — 40K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick certificates if
- You want the certificates feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and certificates fits your workflow better
About Mattermost
Mattermost is an open core, self hosted collaboration platform that offers chat, workflow automation, voice calling, screen sharing, and AI integration. This repo is the primary source for core development on the Mattermost platform; it's written in Go and React, runs as a single Linux binary, and relies on PostgreSQL. A new compiled version is released under an MIT license every month on the 16th. Deploy Mattermost on premises, or try it for free in the cloud. Learn more about the following use cases with Mattermost: DevSecOps Incident Resolution IT Service Desk Other useful resources: Download and Install…
read the full Mattermost overview →
About certificates
step ca step ca is an online certificate authority for secure, automated certificate management for DevOps. It's the server counterpart to the step CLI tool for working with certificates and keys. Both projects are maintained by Smallstep Labs. You can use step ca to: Issue HTTPS server and client certificates that work in browsers (RFC5280 and CA/Browser Forum compliance) Issue TLS certificates for DevOps: VMs, containers, APIs, database connections, Kubernetes pods... Issue SSH certificates: For people, in exchange for single sign on identity tokens For hosts, in exchange for cloud instance identity documents…
read the full certificates overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mattermost or certificates more popular?
Mattermost has 39,510 GitHub stars and certificates has 9,032. Mattermost has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mattermost and certificates free?
Both are open source. Mattermost has no licence declared in this registry, and certificates is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Mattermost and certificates?
Mattermost is written in TypeScript and certificates in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Mattermost or certificates?
Choose Mattermost if you want the larger community (39,510 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose certificates if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.